Day 1: MDG 1 - Eradicating Extreme Hunger and Poverty

http://www.justgiving.com/Dennis-Marcus 

Every day while I'm living below the line (find out what it's about here), I'm going to be writing a little piece on each of the Millennium Development Goals - as well as writing about how I'm finding spending just 93p a day on food.

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty It was images of starving families in Ethiopia during the famine of the 80s that first injected an awareness of extreme poverty into British society. The UK responded powerfully, leading to the brilliant Live Aid concerts that did so much to raise money and raise awareness. I think it struck a chord not only because the sight of the pictures were so horrific and the suffering was so clear, but also because eating and having food available is so straightforward for the very large majority of us. The idea that there are some who can't get food while we regularly hear of the (very real) problems of obesity in our societies is a little obscene. It seems particularly obscene having just spent two weeks in the US, where portion sizes challenged and defeated even my stunning ability to tuck away food (the pizza was the size of a table!) I'm not saying we should all forego food - this is not about us denying our own wants around food. This is about us helping to invest in the programmes needed to make sure that all people have access to enough food to survive. Those programmes are multi-dimensional: - climate change can mean extreme weather conditions that ruin crops - infrastructure is required to transport food - clean water is required to cook food amongst many many others If you want to find out more about hunger, its impact and what you can do - you should take a look at the World Food Programme's website, which has got some brilliant material on it - much better than I could do justice to. It's also important to understand that Extreme Poverty is about much more than food - as will become clear as I discuss each of the Millennium Development Goals. In the meantime - the Global Poverty Project's Rich Fleming (he who did the original Live Below the Line Challenge - for three months!), wrote this piece about it. What can you do Help me out by sponsoring me to complete the challenge at http://www.justgiving.com/Dennis-Marcus Go to www.freerice.com and play the game for 5 minutes everyday - you improve your vocab and you donate rice for free to the World Food Programme. Addictive? Yes. Important? Yes. Difficult? Depends how good your vocab is.